Man of the hour(s): Connections, speed lead to Doeren's hire for Wolfpack

By Conor O'Neill / Times-News

Published: Monday, December 3, 2012 at 12:13 AM.

“At the end of the day, the kind of football you’re going to see is a very aggressive brand of football,” Doeren said. “Not that we’re going to hit harder than everyone else — everyone hits in college football. But they will be coached aggressively, they will be fundamentally sound, our schemes will be aggressive, our coaches will coach to win … and our guys will understand the routine that it takes to do that.

“I’m a worker, and I don’t think you win without work. I believe shortcuts are turnovers … losses.”

A few hours after Doeren was introduced, his now-former Northern Illinois team was awarded a berth to the Orange Bowl, becoming the first team from the MAC to receive a Bowl Championship Series assignment. Northern Illinois will face Florida State, which plays in the same ACC division (Coastal) as N.C. State.

Doeren won’t coach Northern Illinois in its bowl game, nor will he coach N.C. State against Vanderbilt in the Music City Bowl.

RALEIGH — Debbie Yow knew who she wanted to hire as her new football coach.

The North Carolina State athletics director moved quickly and the school grabbed Dave Doeren within 24 hours of his Northern Illinois team’s victory in the Mid-American Conference championship Friday.

Doeren was introduced Sunday afternoon at the team’s football center at Carter-Finley Stadium with promises to turn N.C. State into a perennial power.

“I’m very excited to be here right now. It’s been a crazy 48 hours for us,” Doeren said. “This is a destination job for me. I had a great job at (Northern Illinois), and I wasn’t going to leave it for a place that wasn’t special.”

The lightning-quick hire came with a familiar connection between Yow and Doeren’s agent, Jordan Bazant. The agent also represents Wolfpack men’s basketball coach Mark Gottfried.

It was that relationship that Yow used to gain an upperhand in hiring Doeren, who in two seasons at Northern Illinois was 23-4 with two MAC championships. Doeren’s short but impressive track record created heavy interest, including from one Southeastern Conference program.

“I actually feel like he was a facilitator,” Yow said of Bazant. “I was really concerned about the SEC school that was interested, the Pac-12 school that was interested and the Big Ten school that was interested. A couple of those places have pretty deep pockets. So yes, I was concerned. Let’s just say I was consistently present with Jordan.”

Doeren’s contract is for five years and $1.8 million per year. An automatic two-year extension is activated if the Wolfpack finishes in the top 25 in one of his first two seasons.

It’s a deal that was put together during the weekend, with Yow flying to DeKalb, Ill., on Saturday after watching Northern Illinois’ game Friday night.

To avoid any distractions with his preparations for the MAC championship game, Doeren advised Bazant not to contact him until after Friday night’s game.

But N.C. State was already in Doeren’s mind.

“This isn’t something that was, ‘Oh my gosh, they’re interested, we have to decide,’ ” Doeren said. “(My wife) Sara and I talked a lot about, ‘We’re having a good season, some things could happen, what should we look at?’

“I knew the job was open, so we had kind of done some research on our own, kind of knew what we wanted to do if the situation was right, which it was.”

Doeren projected more of that underlying confidence, which accompanied the inevitable talk of turning N.C. State into an annual contender in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“At the end of the day, the kind of football you’re going to see is a very aggressive brand of football,” Doeren said. “Not that we’re going to hit harder than everyone else — everyone hits in college football. But they will be coached aggressively, they will be fundamentally sound, our schemes will be aggressive, our coaches will coach to win … and our guys will understand the routine that it takes to do that.

“I’m a worker, and I don’t think you win without work. I believe shortcuts are turnovers … losses.”

A few hours after Doeren was introduced, his now-former Northern Illinois team was awarded a berth to the Orange Bowl, becoming the first team from the MAC to receive a Bowl Championship Series assignment. Northern Illinois will face Florida State, which plays in the same ACC division (Coastal) as N.C. State.

Doeren won’t coach Northern Illinois in its bowl game, nor will he coach N.C. State against Vanderbilt in the Music City Bowl.